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What's My Line?
What's My Line? is the long-running panel game show where the celebrity panelists try to figure out unusual occupations of everyday people. It's famous for asking the question..."Is it bigger than a breadbox?" Panelists Regulars Arlene Francis Bennett Cerf Dorothy Kilgallen Soupy Sales Fred Allen Semi-Regulars Louis Untermeyer Hal Block Steve Allen Martin Gabel Dana Valery Alan Alda Bert Convy Elaine Joyce Ruta Lee Meredith MacRae Henry Morgan Gene Rayburn Gene Shalit Nipsey Russell Format Main Rounds In each What's My Line? game, a contestant would enter the stage and sign in his/her name, by virtue of the host saying, "Will you enter and sign in, please?" After that, he/she sat down at a desk next to the host. The game would begin by having the home audience be shown what's his/her line, and the host afterwards told the panel a clue which is usually "deals in a service" or "self-employed", something like those. The panelists in turn then asked yes-or-no questions to the contestant which would hopefully lead to the right line. Each time the panelist in control got a yes answer, his/her turn continued, but if at any time the panelist in control got a no answer, he/she lost his/her turn and control passed to the next panelist in line; the contestant would also receive $5. Upon a no answer, the host would say the famous catchphrase "# down, # to go" (Ex: 2 down, 8 to go). Sometimes a question would have the host make a brief explanation which could lead to either a yes or no answer. A panelist could be allowed to pass his/her turn without penalty; other times the panel could call a conference. If the panel could guess the right line, they won the game, but if they got ten no answers, the contestant stumped the panel, won the game, and a maximum total of $50. Often, the host would throw the cards over (end the game) when time was running short or any other reason. In the syndicated run, the contestant would demonstrate or perform the product or service in question. WML 01.PNG|"Will you enter and sign in, please?" WML 02.PNG|The contestant signing his name. WML 03.PNG|And the audience is shown what his "line" is. WML 04.PNG|These panelists have the (sometimes) difficult task of figuring it out. WML 15.PNG|An example of a demonstration of the contestant's product or service from the 1970s. This particular one is the failed Cartrivision video system. Jimmy & Larry.jpg|Future President Jimmy Carter was a guest in 1973. The Score Cards In the entire original run and during Wally Bruner's stint as host, the money was printed on flip cards. The hosts would flip a card over when a panelist received a no; they would also flip all the cards over if time was running out, or any other reason. When Larry Blyden took over as host, the flip cards were replaced with slide cards built into the desk; they slid away with a press of a button. Finally, the money cards were replaced with descending numbers. WML 14.PNG|The "flip card" desk from Daly's run. They were often printed with the sponsor's product. Hey, who's that masked man sitting next to John? WML 13.PNG|The "flip card" desk from Bruner's run. WML 12.PNG|The "slide card" desk from Blyden's run as host. Final Round: Mystery Guest After two rounds of What's My Line? were played (sometimes more), a third and final round was played but a little differently. This round featured the appearance of the "Mystery Guest". This was where the panelists were blindfolded so they couldn't see the guest. The mystery guest entered and signed in as usual, and that's where the game began. As usual the panel asked yes or no questions, this time to try and guess the name of the mystery challenger. What made this round more different was that this time each panelist could only ask one question per turn, hence the rule "one question at a time", and they had two to three minutes to identify the guest, depending on the amount of time left in the show. While all this was going on, the mystery guest disguised his/her voice in a variety of ways. Some mystery guests wouldn't be famous from the entertainment field, but from other walks of life; when that happened, those guests would play in the main rounds; instead of writing their names, they would write down a big "X" referring to them as Mr. or Ms. "X". One such main round mystery guest was future President Jimmy Carter. In the original classic version, the mystery guest still scored for no answers, while in the syndicated run, the mystery guests were no longer scored. Also in the syndicated run in later years, if a panelist made a wrong guess of the guest, he/she would be free to take his/her blindfold off. Larry would announce that rule by saying "face law prevails." WML 06.PNG|The panel is blindfolded as the mystery celebrity is brought out. WML 07.PNG|Sometimes a celebrity would appear more than once (with different people on the panel, of course), such as Lucille Ball. WML 05.PNG|Sometimes the most unusual celebrities were presented to the panel, such as Francis the Talking Mule. WML 08.PNG|Sometimes relatives of the panelists would be shown as a Mystery Guest. Here all four spouses of the panel wait to be identified. WML 09.PNG|It's the 1970s, and the panel have blinders on as the Mystery Guest enters. WML 10.PNG|Wha?... Yes, it's Bozo the Clown. This ought to be good. WML 11.PNG|...And afterwards, it's Bozo the Clown again. This time without makeup and the clown costume. Who's Who In the 1960s & 1970s syndicated run, whenever there was extra time, a special game was instituted called Who's Who. This was where four members of the studio audience were lined up on stage, and their occupations were printed on cards. Each panelist took those occupation cards gave each to the appropriate contestant (the ones who they thought had that occupation). Each time one panelist failed, another panelist took a turn. The game ended when the panel was stumped or if a panelist could place the occupations with the right contestants. $25 was awarded for each stump for a grand total of up to $100. In Popular Culture During What's My Line? What's My Lion? Warner Bros. created a Looney Tunes short that used a pun title. It was called What's My Lion? and saw Elmer Fudd hunt a mountain lion and didn't realize until the end of the cartoon that the lion came to Elmer's home as a hunting trophy. What's My Crime?/101 Dalmatians In the classic 1961 animated Disney film 101 Dalmatians briefly spoofed What's My Line? as What's My Crime? What happened was that Horace & Jasper Badun, Cruella De Vil's offbeat henchmen, were watching the show when Cruella came in to tell them to kill the 99 kidnapped puppies tonight, but they elected to continue watching the show until it was over, at which point they would then do the job. The game itself was centered around crime & the law; the contestants were all criminals and the panel was shortened to three. Horace & Jasper continued watching the show while the puppies escaped from the room; when the show ended, Horace & Jasper chased after them until Pongo & Perdy arrived. 1961.jpg|A scene from 101 Dalmatians. What's My Perversion? It was during the syndicated version that Woody Allen (who has appeared in a 1967 episode of the show itself) parodied the show in the 1972 comedy film Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) with the segment called "What Are Sex Perverts?" featuring a game show called What's My Perversion?. It was hosted by Jack Barry (The Joker's Wild) and appearing are the panelists Robert Q. Lewis (who had been a panelist on the show), Regis Philbin, Toni Holt and Pamela Mason (who had been a "Mystery Guest" on the show). 25th Anniversary Special On May 28, 1975 (months before the cancellation of the syndicated run), ABC aired a 90-minute special of What's My Line called "What's My Line at 25". It was hosted by producer/creator Mark Goodson alongside Arlene Francis & original host John Daly. The special chronicled the life, times, and excellent moments of the show. Magnavox Odyssey On the syndicated version in 1972, the production director of Magnavox Inc. came on the show to show the extremely short-lived console called the Odyssey. The secret was that he and host Larry Blyden were playing Tennis (which the panel failed to figure out). The Kentucky Fried Movie A segement from the 1977 movie called Courtroom which in turn is a spoof of the popular reality court series Divorce Court (1957 version) the judge (played by Ross Durfee) can be briefly seen flipping the score cards from 5 to 50. The_Kentucky_Fried_Movie_What's_My_Line_spoof_1.png The_Kentucky_Fried_Movie_What's_My_Line_spoof_2.png In Popular Culture After What's My Line? What's My Part? Sesame Street had a spoof of What's My Line? called What's My Part?, hosted by Guy Smiley. There were two such sketches: Foot, in which the regulars Bennett Snerf (Bennett Cerf) and Arlene Frantic (Arlene Francis) were portrayed as regular people joined by Professor Hastings, who accidentally identified the Mystery Guest (Foot) merely by complaining his foot was asleep, and Nose, in which Snerf and Frantic are portrayed as noseless monsters and joined by Cookie Monster, also noseless, so naturally the Mystery Guest stumps them...and even when they remove their blindfolds they still can't identify him! 300px-Whatsmypart.jpg Whatsmypart-foot.jpg That's My Line In 1980, CBS (the network that originally aired What's My Line?) & Goodson/Todman Productions produced & aired a special summer series called That's My Line. It was entirely based on What's My Line? except it was not a real game show; it was a simple Real People/''That's Incredible''-like reality show focusing on everyday people's unusual occupations. The show was hosted by Bob Barker and announced by former What's My Line? announcer Johnny Olson (who by that time became a team on The Price is Right); co-hosts for this show were Suzanne Childs, Tiiu Leek and Kerry Millerick (who joined in 1981). $T2eC16F,!ykE9s7tw!yVBRTGQ0tfz!~~60_57.JPG 160px-That's_My_Line.jpg That's_My_Line.JPG $T2eC16NHJHwE9n8ig+s,BReZRztC1Q~~60_57.JPG that's_my_line.jpg $(KGrHqNHJFQFEMQ(YVTeBRe,stPM5w~~60_12.JPG TML1.png What's Our Line? In the 1995 segment of Animaniacs called "Deduces Wild", Yakko, Wakko and Dot are sitting at a desk along with a sign that reads "What's Our Line?". Animaniacs_What's_Our_Line.png Proposed What's My Line? Pilots/Revivals These are the eras that were made to revive the show but failed to have never aired. 1963 A planned network daytime version was made for CBS at the time, but original host John Charles Daly made it perfectly clear that he would not host a five-days-a-week game show. Daly was so closely associated with WML? by that point the network shelved the project instead of finding a new host. 1981 A version was planned at the time, pending on the success of the short-lived Robin Ward syndicated revival of To Tell the Truth in 1980. Details were sketchy as the revival never went past the talking stages and few if any other details are known, other than it was to be a five-days-a-week show. 1996 Produced in a joint venture between All-American Television and Miramax Films. This was also the film company's (Miramax) first foray into television production.All American Television and Miramax Films Partner to Produce new 'What's My Line?' Game Show WML1996.png 19961216-2.png This version was described as "a new model" that would have blended the original features such as having a celebrity panel questions contestants in an effort to guess their occupation and also having the panel blindfolded to guess the identity of a famous person with "contemporary special effects and interactive twists". CBS reportedly committed to six episodes for its fall 1999 schedule. However, according to Miramax TV president Billy Campbell, the deal crumbled because the network decided the show was too "costly and ambitious". 2000 A pilot was shot on June 10, 2000 for CBS' primetime schedule hosted by Harry Anderson (Judge Harry T. Stone) of Night Court fame along with Catherine Bell (JAG), Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle; Breaking Bad), Betty White and Al Franken as the four panelists. It was one of two proposed shows for the network at the time. The other was the long-running reality competition series Survivor hosted by Jeff Probst. However, this pilot was turned down for the latter show. In the same year, another revival of the show was supposed to be made with actress Gwyneth Paltrow but was "on hold"A "What's My Line?" remake with Gwyneth Paltrow is on hold | EW.comat the moment. 2008 This version was in the works with former Knight Rider and Baywatch star David Hasselhoff along with FremantleMedia (who owns the rights to the show)Redrawing "My" Linebut was never materialized. 2014 Most recently, another pilot was made for a shot in the fall 2015What's My Line? - On Camera AudiencesRandy West > The Randy West Appreciation Group Hey, what's up with THIS?season in syndication. Developed by Debmar-Mercury with production studio FremantleMedia North America (which again owns the rights to this show) was supposed to feature the famed Improv theatre comedy group called "The Second City" as the four panelists. However, it was also never materialized. What's My Line Future Pilot Logo.jpg 1743470 10205001442380684 3429442868846882388 n.jpg What's My Line? Live On Stage Since 2004, What's My Line? came back as a live stage show hosted by J. Keith van Straaten. People who appeared on the original series along with relatives of those appeared made appearances on the live show. The show went on a brief hiatus giving host Straaten time to move from Los Angeles to New York City from July 2006 to June 2007. wmllarge.jpg Mystery Taster (The Rachael Ray Show) On certain episodes of the popular talk show The Rachael Ray Show, they had their own version of the Mystery Guest game called "Mystery Taster". This was where a celebrity or a group of celebrities past or present came down the elevator while Rachael stood in the corner of her kitchen so she wouldn't see. She asked interesting questions (not restricted to yes or no) hopefully to lead her to the identity of the taster. There were two rounds of Mystery Taster, the first of which being at the start of the show, and the other was later in the show. After the second round in which the identity of the Mystery Taster was eventually revealed, Rachael & the surprise guest took some time to chat at the kitchen table. 6086MysteryT-575.jpg Gallery WML Copyright.png|What’s My Line? ©MCMLXXIII (1973) 486016_622923927722388_1065528356_n.jpg Press Pictures DSCN2009.JPG 1376383_585968084774078_1994937972_n.jpg Merchandise Board Games The original incarnation based on the original 1950s CBS version was released by Lowell in 1955. pic190395_md.jpg The second incarnation based on the 1968 syndicated version was released by Whitman in 1969. pic1071046_md.png To celebrate the show's 50th anniversary at the time, a third edition was released by Endless Games in 2001. wmlbg01.jpg Books A book based on the show was created by Gil Fates and was released by Prentice Hall in 1978. In the book the producer of the classy panel show looks back over the quarter-century run of the series. (NOTE: Original host John Daly and panelists Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf and Dorothy Kilgallen are on the cover of the book.) wml_cbs.jpg 51loQaW3suL._SS500_.jpg Record Album A record album based on the show was released by Dot in 1955, where audio recordings of eight "mystery guest" segments as originally seen on the show can be heard on the album. WML?Record.jpg Studios Network Version Grand Central Studios, New York City, NY (Early Episodes) Studios 52, 59, and 50, CBS New York City, NY (Later Episodes) Syndicated Version Ed Sullivan Theater, New York City, NY (1968–1971) NBC Studios 8H and 6A, New York City, NY (1971–1975) Rating Music 1950 1st Open - "Melody in Moccasins" by Wilfred Burns 2nd Open - by Sacha Burland and His Orchestra Close - "Roller Coaster" by Henry Rene and His Orchestra 1968 - by Charles Fox and Score Productions 1972 - by Charles Fox and Score Productions The Who's Who music of the 1971 version was the main from He Said She Said. 2000 - Unknown Studios CBS Ed Sullivan Theater NBC New York Studios Spinoffs Figure it Out - a kid's version on Nickelodeon similar to What's My Line? except the Secret is on a board and there are tons of surprises such as clues and slime. The panel still ask yes or no questions. Additional Page What's My Line?/Quotes & Catchphrases What’s My Line/Video Gallery References Links [http://web.archive.org/web/20000614173030/http://www.pearsontv.com/pages/library/whats.htm What's My Line? @ Pearson Television's official website (via Internet Archive)] [http://rjgameshows2.bravehost.com/whatsmyline.html Rules for What's My Line?] [http://www.oocities.org/TelevisionCity/4439/whatsmyline.html Jason Colflesh's What My Line? Page] [http://web.archive.org/web/20120205022105/http://whatsmyline.org/ Official What's My Line? Live on Stage site] YouTube Links & Videos [http://www.youtube.com/user/WhatsMyLineCBS The original What's My Line? channel] The First Ever Episode of the Original What's My Line September 3, 1967 Finale A playing of Who's Who Clip of the 2000 Pilot Category:Panel Game Category:Celebrity Category:Primetime shows Category:Network shows Category:CBS shows Category:Syndicated shows Category:Goodson-Todman Productions Category:CBS Television Studios Category:Long-Running Category:Revivals Category:30 Minute Game Shows Category:1950 premieres Category:1967 endings Category:1968 premieres Category:1975 endings